RESILIENT LANDSCAPE VISIONS

Landscape visions are management approaches based on an understanding of the processes that create and maintain landforms and associated habitat types. These visions explore resilient, multi-benefit strategies to address a range of long-term challenges, from flood management to climate adaptation. Five landscape visions have been created for different locations in the Bay and Delta.

Resilient Silicon Valley

This document presents a preliminary vision for landscape resilience across the streams, hills, baylands, and urban areas of Silicon Valley. It is a product of Resilient Silicon Valley, a project of the San Francisco Estuary Institute to create a science-based vision for ecosystem health and resilience in Silicon Valley (resilientsv.sfei.org).

The vision outlined here was developed by applying a set of resilience principles (Beller et al. 2015) to Silicon Valley, in collaboration with a team of regional science advisors, to identify landscape elements that are likely to contribute to resilience in the region. It is intended to provide a broad foundation for restoration and management strategies and contribute to discussions amongst scientists, planners, managers, and other stakeholders about specific actions that would improve landscape resilience.

As we rethink land management along the San Francisco Bay shoreline in the face of climate change, we know well-functioning resilient tidal landscapes can protect development and sustain native ecosystems. Here, we present a possible future vision for lower Novato Creek and adjacent baylands that includes several components that would restore and support natural processes, and, in turn, benefi t aspects of flood risk management and ecosystem functioning. The Novato Creek Baylands Vision is an element of an EPA-funded project called Flood Control 2.0, which is aimed at advancing new approaches for fl ood risk management and habitat enhancement along the San Francisco Bay shoreline for the 21st century and beyond.

As we rethink land management along the San Francisco Bay shoreline in the face of climate change, we know well-functioning resilient tidal landscapes can protect development and sustain native ecosystems. Here, we present a possible future vision for lower Walnut Creek and adjacent baylands that includes several components that would restore and support natural processes, and, in turn, benefit aspects of flood risk management and ecosystem functioning. The Resilient Landscape Vision for lower Walnut Creek is an element of an EPA-funded project called Flood Control 2.0, which is aimed at advancing new approaches for flood risk management and habitat enhancement along the San Francisco Bay shoreline for the 21st century and beyond.